Tag: Good Omens

Author Neil Gaiman has been involved in the adaptations of his own works, but now he will be joining the production team of an adaptation of someone else’s work.

Gaiman will join Akiva Goldsman and several others to bring The Gormenghast Series to life, with the show taking its title from the second book, Gormenghast. Originally a trilogy that later expanded after author Mervyn Peake’s death, it follows the inhabitants of Gormenghast castle, specifically the character Titus, who longs to know what life is like outside the walls of the castle.

Image Via Amazon

This type of story fits in well with Gaiman’s wheelhouse, which features the kind of high-fantasy mixed with odd humor that defines both Good Omens and American Gods. Gormenghasthas originally been adapted by BBC. Gaiman talked about the other adaptation to Deadlineand how his version will be different:

The joy of trying to describe Gormenghast to people is one where words will fail you and that’s why there have been people who wanted to film Gormenghast ever since Peake wrote the first book. The BBC once tried but they were all making it in times when depicting the impossible on the screen was too difficult. The great thing now is that we can make it and actually show it and take you there. We are now in a world where you can put the impossible on screen and with Gormenghast, you’re not just dealing with a castle the size of a city but dealing with these incredibly glorious and memorable people.”

The story was originally published in a series of comics released by DC Comics’ imprint, Vertigo, and it is set to have Allan Heinberg as writer and showrunner. Heinberg recently worked on Wonder Woman, a widely successful DC Comics adaptation, which should bring hope to the many of us who have been waiting for Sandman to come to life. Gaiman will executive produce with David Goyer.

Image Via GQ

Sandman was originally slated to be a film when it was announced that Vertigo titles were being adapted by New Line Cinema. Joseph Gordon Levitt was to direct and star, but he split over creative differences, placing the project on hold. Gaiman and Goyer were also set to work on this adaptation, and Gaiman even spoke about the adaptation being in the works at Comic Con.

With a second, and even better, chance at telling this story, it will just be one more addition to Gaiman’s list of TV adapted titles. American Gods is on STARZ, Good Omens is on Amazon, and Sandman will be joining Lucifer on Netflix. Whatever streaming service you use, you can find Gaiman and his stories.

What are your thoughts? Are you excited for the Netflix series or would you have preferred the theater experience? Let us know!

Neil Gaiman’s Good Omens is a darkly comical television series based on the novel of the same name. It tells the story of an angel and a demon teaming up to prevent the apocalypse. The book was adapted into a six-part miniseries and was met with positive reviews upon release. However, not everyone has responded to the series so warmly, and some are going so far as to try and cancel it all together.

Image Via Amazon

American Christian group Return To Order, a campaign centered around a book of the same name by John Horvat II, has started a petition to cancel Good Omens on the grounds that it is “another step to make Satanism appear normal, light and acceptable.”

Image Via Amazon

Among the complaints about the series are that God is voiced by a woman (Frances McDormand), the Antichrist is portrayed as a child and that the angel & demon are portrayed as friends instead of enemies.

There’s just one problem: the petition calls for Netflix to cancel the series, but it’s only available on Amazon Prime. This little oversight didn’t escape the eye of Neil Gaiman, who responded on Twitter in the best way possible.

The highly anticipated Good Omens has arrived, but not without its unpleasant detractors. One Twitter user complained about the amount of diversity shown in the opening few minutes, and decided to whine about it to the show’s creator, Neil Gaiman. Gaiman then reminded him of his place in the world.

You know, it's when people who proclaim themselves as "white supremacists" turn off Good Omens after the first few minutes, and then come on Twitter to tell me off, that I think sometimes a negative review is a marvelous and heartwarming thing. https://t.co/AwX3oclXaZ

The show begins with Academy Award-winner Frances McDormand narrating as the voice of God. The story of Genesis then unfolds with Adam and Eve, who are played by black actors.

Image via Ars Technica

This was apparently offensive to certain people, and Gaiman had actually addressed this potential reaction during an interview with Slashfilm.

Slashfilm: Do you expect the black Adam and Eve to ruffle some feathers, since some devout people still assume they were white?

Gaiman: You’re talking here about a drama predicated on the idea that the antichrist might actually be a nice kid in which a demon and an angel are working against the orders of Heaven and incidentally Hell in order to stop the apocalypse from happening and save the world. On this basis, I think a black Adam and Eve is a nice way of letting anybody who would be significantly offended by any of those concepts know that they can stop watching this now. It is safe to turn off.

Image via IMDb

Good Omens follows the demon Crowley, and the angel Aziraphale, who also happen to be best friends in love with each other, as they try stopping the apocalypse in spite of Heaven’s decision to end the world. But yeah, the thing that throws people off is Adam and Eve’s skin color.

It’s nice to see that Gaiman can deal with these unpleasantries with grace and wit.

The upcoming release of Good Omens will be a bittersweet one, given that co-creator Terry Pratchett is no longer with us. No expense was spared to make his narrative contributions come to life, especially under the watch of co-creator Neil Gaiman.

io9 reports that Gaiman was keen on filming a small, yet expensive scene during the TV series’ production. The scene featured one of Pratchett’s characters, Agnes Nutter, played by Josie Lawrence, getting burned at the stake in front of a village crowd for practicing witchcraft.

Image via io9

Agnes’s character is more important to the backstory and world-building of Crowley and Aziraphale’s journey to stop the apocalypse than the story itself. However, when production raised concerns about the scene’s cost and proposed a budget-friendly solution, Gaiman couldn’t bring himself to exclude Pratchett’s creation. (It would also be a little awkward to remove the Agnes Nutter character from a book called Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch.)

It was a huge, complicated and incredibly expensive shoot, with bonfires built and primed to explode as well as huge crowds in costumes. It had to feel just like an English village in the 1640s, and of course everyone asked if there was a cheap way of doing it. One suggestion was that we could tell the story using old-fashioned woodcuts and have the narrator take us through what happened, but I just thought, ‘No’. Because I had brought aspects of the story like Crowley and the baby swap along to the mix, and Terry created Agnes Nutter.

So, if I had cut out Agnes then I wouldn’t be doing right by the person who gave me this job. Terry would’ve rolled over in his grave.

Image via Amazon

It’s touching to see Gaiman’s consideration and loyalty to his beloved co-writer. A deal originally dictated that an adaptation would only be possible if both creators were attached to the project, until Gaiman received a posthumous from Pratchett himself, requesting that he adapt it.

Site links

About Us

Bookstr connects books with people. We make discovering books entertaining, informative, and socially engaging. And most importantly, we believe that the best recommendations come from people you know and trust.

Newsletter Subscription

If you want to subscribe to our monthly newsletter, please submit the form below.